By Clark Bailey

The Loyalist

Recently, a chicken processing plant in Mississippi was raided by federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE. Close to 700 illegal aliens were arrested on site. This raid an subsequent arrests continue the pattern of stepping up illegal immigration enforcement during the Trump administration.

It is a pattern that I take pride in seeing. I was taken immediately when Donald Trump made the campaign promises of building a border wall, cutting back illegal immigration and reforming the route to legal immigration in this country. Most of those promises have yet to materialize fully, but the fervor at which ICE is approaching this problem and the increase in raids shows me the government is serious about this problem. Even if they could be a little more serious.

Every year numbers in the tens of thousands of illegal immigrants breach our Southern border in what, at times, seems like an orchestrated invasion. Some flee economic distress. Some flee totalitarian regimes. Some come fleeing commitments or problems. Some come as smugglers and traffickers. Some come because they want a new life in the land of promise, that much of the world sees us as. Whatever the reason, people pour through the 1,954 land miles of the border between Mexico and the United States. These creating countless problems in the United States.

Drug trafficking and human trafficking are intrinsically linked to illegal immigration. Depressed wages are also associated with the influx of unskilled labor into the market, allowing the industry to undercut wages that would have to be paid to American citizens. There are some ancillary benefits is lower prices on certain consumer goods where the bulk of the workforce is illegals, such as meat processing. The downside to that is shutting out unskilled American laborers from this market.

This problem isn’t only the fault of illegal immigrants. In fact, I would argue they may share the least or at least a significantly smaller share of the blame. As I mentioned earlier the recent raid netted 680 arrests. I would venture to say that among those 680, there wasn’t a person in HR, mid-level or upper management, and especially a CEO among those charged. Seeing as US. Code 1,324a states that it is a violation of federal law to knowingly recruit, hire or aid in the hiring of illegal aliens, it would seem to be some charges are due.

I’m generous to a fault at giving people the benefit of the doubt, but you can’t tell me human resources for this company hired almost 700 illegal aliens and no one was the wiser. I’d come closer to believing Jeffery Epstein really did kill himself. It is in this area that we need to see more movement in the fight against illegal immigration. We need to see people flaunting the law in this country charged. We need to see prosecutions, convictions and prison time. We still want a wall. We still want the border protected and patrolled. We still want enforcement and deportation. But most people are like me, in that we want fairness as well. We want to see people who laugh at laws and find every way to circumvent them to pay as well. The law should apply to Fortune 500 CEO’s, as well as dead, broke Guatemalans.

Now on to Epstein, Pedophile Island and Pizza Gate. Just in case you’re a Luddite or live under a literal rock, former global financier, convicted sex offender and alleged sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein, according to reports, committed suicide in his jail cell this weekend.

Rumors and conspiracies abound at the news of his death. Just as they did during his life. The long list of famous and powerful people connected to Epstein, including former President Bill Clinton (who visited the private island at least 26 times), perhaps breathed a collective sigh of relief at the news of his passing. The case against Epstein and more than likely, many of his powerful friends was gaining steam as he awaited trial in his New York City jail cell.

His death hardly comes as a shock as reports of a suicide attempt came just a week or so back. An attempt that many doubted was an actual suicide attempt, just as many doubt this was a successful suicide, or some even suspect he is still alive.

Regardless of the cause of death, or if any other rumor proves to be true, the one thing that cannot die is the story. Countless numbers of teenage girls were taken to this island and other places, to be abused by some of the most powerful people in the world. It’s a story that most want to die just like Epstein, but it’s a story that we can’t afford to let die. Even if it’s in the death throes, even if it forces us to examine and face things altogether too uncomfortable to face. We have to face it. We have to keep it alive, till we see people brought to justice.